Cheesy Leek and Potato Pot Pie

When I was creating my Veggie Steak and Ale Pie recipe a few weeks ago I ended up with some left over pastry. It wasn’t enough to line another pie tin, but it was enough to top a pot pie. A pot pie to me, (people get very touchy about their pie definitions) is a pie that is served in a dish with only a pastry lid, no pastry on the bottom or sides. I find that full pastry pies with potatoes in the mix are a bit carb-heavy for me, so a pot pie is the perfect solution. You still get the crisp, flaky, buttery pastry, but don’t end up in a carb-coma half way through the meal.

Mature cheddar cheese with leeks are a match made in heaven and the onion and potato bulk out the mix to create a cheep, tasty, comforting pie filling the whole family will devour. Just what we need to get us through lock down!

If you don’t have any spare pastry knocking about, you can use shop bought pastry, or make your own (see the recipe above).

Enough pastry (shop bought or homemade) to cover the top of the dish and have an inch or so overhanging

A drop of milk

Method:

Preheat oven to 200c / 180c fan / gas mark 6.

Put the chopped potatoes in a pan with enough water to cover the potatoes, and bring to the boil. Simmer for about 5 mins until the potato is soft enough to just get a fork through (you don’t want it to be mushy). Drain and set to one side.

Pop the pan back on a medium heat and add the oil, leek and onion. Fry for a few mins until soft. – Pic 1

Add the cheese, milk, egg, black pepper and mix well. – Pic 2

Once well combined and the cheese has melted, add the cooked, drained potato and mix well. – Pic 3

Heat through for a few mins and then pour the mixture into an oven proof dish and smooth out the top. – Pic 4

Roll out the pastry and lay it on top of the dish. Using your rolling pin, push the pastry onto the sides of the dish to cut it to shape and then pull the excess away from the dish. – Pics 5 & 6

Slice some steam holes into the top of the pastry lid and use the excess pastry to decorate. (Wet the area you’d like the decorations to go with a clean finger dipped in water to make the pastry stick to each other) – Pics 7 & 8

Brush the drop of milk over the pasty to egg wash and bake on a piece of kitchen foil to catch any drips from the bubbling filling for 20 mins, or until golden brown. – Pic 9